Geographia Polonica (1994) vol. 63

Abstract

The work deals with demographic problems of the rural areas in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Kaliningrad District, Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, Czecho-slovakia, Hungary, Rumania, Moldavia, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. In the text, the common term "Central Eastern Europe" is applied to these countries. A statistical analysis has been employed with regard to nine time intervals/time points: 1897/1900; 1910/1913; 1920/1921; 1939/1941; 1948/1950; 1960; 1970; 1980 and 1987/1990. For each of them the size of rural population and its density have been evaluated, and then, the dynamics of demographic evolution described. An important part of the analysis has been the comparison of rural population to total population. On the basis of this comparison, structural changes and demographic trends have been defined. Particular attention has been paid to the processes of depopulation as well as their range and intensity in rural areas of Central Eastern Europe.